4.3 Experiences that student teachers of English have about learning
4.3.2 Discipline
His experience was not so different from Simphiwe, who came from a different context, which was rural. His experience was exemplified by love, togetherness and belief.
“My high school experience was good. I reckon that in the township not everybody went to school to learn, other learners were just going there because their parents are forcing them to. The school found a way to accommodate people like that. I enjoyed high school because it was not only based on academics or content but also allowed for the acquisition of skills, values and beliefs for the future. No cultures were discriminated against. All cultures were accommodated and they had time for us to engage in extra activities.”
For Simphiwe, his school represented growth and raising of leaders, ideals and ideas that will foster the goals and dreams of some of the students. However, while some students did not want to go to school, some students, like Simphiwe, had positive experiences. This is in line with Bloch’s (2003) view that education is key to growing the skills that are needed in changing our world. He notes that education is about the aspirations and opportunities that young people have and which should be enhanced. Schools may also become the centres for the fostering of unity among diverse cultures, language, ethnicity and creed. Education and learning could bring harmony and unity among diverse people and by so doing close possible divisions that exist among people.
As pointed out earlier, so many schools pay special attention to the FET phase to the detriment of the GET. It is possible that the fewer the number of students per class, the less the chance of ill-discipline and chaos. Lerato highlighted another malaise in her school which is learners absconding from classes either by not being present at all in school or being present but not attending classes. The more learners are away from the classroom, the more they increase their chances of failure and possible repetition of class, as not being in class means they would possibly have no idea what was taught in class. This shows a possible link between class absenteeism and school failure.
Enhle spoke of a proactive discipline method through her teacher’s teaching method.
“My teacher didn’t need to say much. Rather, her teaching made us stay and listen and be disciplined, and learning happened.”
The above is evidence that a teacher’s professionalism, content knowledge and pedagogy may be all he/she needs to keep the class in check and on task.
Sometimes students want to repay a teacher’s commitment and output by behaving appropriately in class and following the teacher’s instruction. These are the type of teachers learners do not want to disappoint, as keeping them happy is tantamount to a better classroom experience for students. A teacher’s classroom practice can furthermore be the example and motivation some students need to aspire to become teachers themselves, as has been captured by Nikita, who contends:
“It was more my English teacher that had an influence in me choosing teaching.
My English classroom did play a role in my choosing English as a major also.
My English teacher is still my mentor today. She encouraged me to be an English teacher today for some reason, and she was always encouraging. I actually wanted to be a lawyer and she said tome, you are not a good liar, so don’t think of that.”
Similarly, Marissa did not have problems with discipline in her class due to the fact her teacher had a reputation for being strict and committed unlike the younger teachers.
“My Grade 11 and matric teacher, she is very strict, she has been there for a long time, so when you stay that long in a school and being old, you have a reputation; nobody dare mess with her.”
In Marissa’s school the teacher had a reputation for being strict which preceded her and made it possible for her students to be self-disciplined and focused in school. She adds:
“But when there was no discipline, the teacher would ask you to go in front of the class, to detention or you do your work during the break time.”
Some teachers are innovative in handling ill-discipline in classes while others are not. This is the difference between a class where teaching and learning are effective and where they are not. Ntokozo observes that:
“When a student is doing something wrong the teacher would pull a joke on you and you will be embarrassed and never to do it again. My other teacher in Grade 8 would usually smack you hard. There was a time when she and a girl fought.
The girl actually slapped her back, but that was resolved when the girl apologised to the teacher.”
As mentioned by Ntokozo, they were embarrassed by their teacher when they did something wrong. Embarrassing learners to stop them misbehaving could be very harmful to the psychological and emotional well-being of a child and may be counter-productive as can be seen from the above quote. The school should build and not destroy young minds. Schools are also meant to encourage creativity and be a hub for innovation and not where learners are afraid to make mistakes and face embarrassing consequences. Schools should have a constructive disciplinary approach that aims to be more corrective than punitive as that is the only way of raising confident individuals worthy of standing on their own in the world. The issue of ill-discipline and how to curb it remains a problem for many teachers, and many teachers resort to corporal punishment, even though it is illegal (Msani, 2007). Ntokozo spoke, without apparent concern, of a Grade 8 learner who slapped a teacher. While this action could possibly be a reprisal for a punishment,
censure, or other action by a teacher, it might not be. More alarmingly, is the fact that the teacher and the learner fought with each other, pointing to an apparent lack of discipline in the classroom.
Ayanda agrees that corporal punishment was used in her class but identified one of her teachers who was a tough no-nonsense teacher, saying:“Whenever he came to the classroom, we all went silent.” This again may prove not to be the best teaching or discipline method as it is difficult to learn in an environment where fear is a dominant trait. Similarly, this was the case for Smilo where the teacher would twist their ears severely. For Simphiwe kneeling down in front of the class constituted punishment or learners wrote an impromptu test after disruptive learners had been chased out of class. Smilo said:
“Like if we had a test for next week, it is brought forward and if you are outside you are not going to write.”
This goes to show how teachers are grappling with the issue of discipline in the classroom and how it negatively affects classroom output.
Teacher absenteeism also contributes to negative classroom experiences which spill over to the general school context. Nompilo describes her classroom/school experience of discipline:
“Discipline was maintained especially as the teacher didn’t come to the class often. When she did come, we behaved because we didn’t want to upset or anger her. We thought making her angry would make her come every day, which we didn’t want. So, when she came it was pure discipline. We followed everything that she said.”
Absurd as this may sound, it captures the lived experience of schooling as Nompilo observed it. The classroom should be the centre of teaching and learning and not a place where learners prefer to be free rather than busy learning. There are possible reasons that would make learners choose having free time over learning. Reasons could include a lack of professionalism, lack of subject content
knowledge, incompetence on the part of the teacher, and/or lack of interest on the part of the learners. But, it is disturbing that a whole class of learners would not be interested in learning when it was time for a particular subject. The fact this happened only during the English period goes to show there was possibly a problem with the teacher’s pedagogy and/or English classroom methodology.
Ideally, a teacher engages with educational philosophy with the students in the classroom. That the teacher was unable to detect this anomaly and work towards addressing it makes it even more worrisome. This is corroborated further by Nompilo who stated:
“I had the not so determined educator so I would only study when I had to, like when there was a test and we knew she would give us the questions that were already there inside our novels or short stories. So we didn’t even finish the book, we were just reading the questions, looking for the answers so that we can write the test and that was it.”
The findings make it evident that many policymakers in education, teachers included, have reduced the currency of educational success to one main measure - test scores. This is detrimental to the overall school experience of learners and has succeeded in reducing schooling to a means of economic competitiveness, both personal and national. This puts unnecessary pressure on students to work to pass rather than to learn (Tyack & Cuban, 1995). For many possible reasons, including laziness and lack of passion, some teachers find it difficult finishing their set work and, to close up the gap, they focus on assessment rather than making sure the curriculum requirements are met. The tendency for some teachers to regurgitate questions already in learners’ texts or reproduce questions from previous question papers does more to harm learners than improve them. It does not help foster creativity and ingenuity, attributes that schools should foster and entrench.
From the above quote, it is obvious that Nompilo and her class, due to their teacher’s disposition, did not put in much effort because they were schooled to
imbibe the notion of ‘the end justifying the means’ and by so doing missed out on life lessons which school should have encouraged. When teachers place emphasis on marks and not on learning, it may often result in learners running with the system and working to pass, rather than learning, where the “greatest reward”
should be.
The issue of language can also be an inhibiting factor that works to the benefit of teachers battling with ill-discipline. In the words of Aphiwe:
“Discipline was maintained in our classroom because many of the students feared communicating in English, so in our English class, learners would be very quiet. However being very quiet is detrimental to learning... speaking English and in another class they would be very outspoken.”
It was like a situationally enforced kind of discipline, but it seemed to serve the purpose intended, and some teachers would take it as the end justifying the means.
Sometimes the context may help prevent indiscipline and violent tendencies in schools. From the responses of students from rural schools, students in the rural areas tend to be more responsible and respectful in behaviour and manners. All the students in my study from rural schools did not have issues with discipline.
The school disciplinary structure took care of that; there were disruptive learners but their ability to disrupt teaching and learning or the internal workings of the rural schools were significantly minimal. Zama illustrates that further:
“The students were very respectful and that might have something to do with their social background (deep rural area) where elders are to be respected and there was no violence.”